The present invention relates to bulk mailing systems and, in particular, to a system for notifying, accepting and verifying individual pieces of mail in the bulk mailing of posted material.
The bulk mailing of certain types of mail is becoming increasingly common. Therein, an organization preparing invoices, notices, and other informative literature directed to a plurality of addressees will oftentimes, directly or through third parties, prepare an entire item is a single highly automated, printing, stuffing and mailing operation using programs authorized by the postal authorities thereby controlling and lowering the costs for the mailing.
When using a third party bulk mailer or agent, for instance, an organization, such as a utility, will provide the bulk mailer with computer generated data for preparing, addressing and mailing an invoice for each customer. Accessing such data, the bulk mailer prints the invoices from plain paper in a format and with information as desired by the organization, and places the invoices in envelopes imprinted with the desired address. Item by item, depending on the rate structure applicable to the individual invoice, the proper postage is affixed. Generally, the postage rate is determined by a number of factors including postal area, weight, and the sorting capabilities. Such items are amassed, bound, and placed on trays for transfer to a mailing facility that handles bulk mail for the postal system. Upon arrival at the bulk mailing system, only limited information is provided to the postal service with regard to the items in each tray, generally limited to total postage, number of pieces, ZIP code and the like. Moreover, such limited information is available only when the trays are physically delivered to the mailing system, not in advance thereof. Accordingly, the mailing system does not possess and cannot acquire information regarding incoming shipments so as to allocate time and resources thereto in a time cost efficient manner.
Upon arrival at the mailing facility, the trays must be receipted and a cursory accuracy manually determined by randomly selecting items from the tray and confirming the correctness of the delivered information. If existing standards are met, the shipment, en masse, is accepted and delivered to automatic sorting machinery for further processing prior to physical delivery. Thereafter, the bulk mailer and the originating entity are removed from further operational contact with the mailing system. Further, no additional information is gathered regarding the identity or correctness of the items and/or shipment and, accordingly, the originating entity and bulk mailer have no ability to verify status, processing or delivery of their items.
Such existing systems are also limited in the feedback information available to both parties regarding the performance and accuracy of the overall system, the bulk mailer or the mailing system. Missing items in a presumed printing sequence cannot be determined. Duplicate or missing items are not be identified. Proper postage criteria for meeting the postal schedules are not verified. Thus, even though substantial benefits for both the addressor and the postal system are provided through bulk mailing techniques, no verification as to individual items is provided, and remedial actions for any irregularities are not readily apparent.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved bulk mailing system for verifying on an item-by-item basis the accuracy between submitted and delivered items.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system for tracking individual items from preparation by a bulk mailer through processing by a postal system.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system for determining the accuracy with which a postal system and a mailing agent address, process and deliver individually posted items.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a discrete data record for each posted item delivered to and processed by a postal system to enable ascertaining accuracy of performance.
A further object of the invention is to create a unique identifier on each item of posted material enabling the tracking of individual material from preparation of the posted item through processing at a postal facility.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a system for notifying a postage facility as to the content of a prospective bulk mailing prior to the delivery thereof.
The foregoing objects are accomplished by a bulk mailing tracking that creates data base records for each posted item of a bulk mailing so as to enable early notification to a mailing systems as to the content of mail to be delivered by a bulk mailer in advance of physical delivery at the facility, documentation as to the processing of each posted item at the postal facility, and verification as to the correspondence between notification and documentation including item related specifics thereof. The foregoing capabilities are accomplished through utilization of a unique imprinted identifier on each mailed item, preferably in the form of a postal acceptance bar code that appears in the return address envelope window. The bar code may be scanned by conventional equipment. The bar code provides subsets of information relating to the mailing of the individual item and others in the mass mailing, including, the job activity number, date, mailing agent, originating addressor, weight, postage, and physical location within a mailing container to be presented to the mailing facility. At the mailing agent, a notification file is prepared based on the bar codes of the submitted items.
The notification file is made available on a server to the mailing facility and provides advance notice of incoming mail so that equipment and personnel can be appropriately scheduled. In view of the notification file, the submitted mail need only be delivered. It is no longer necessary to obtain a physical receipt and to run a preliminary audit of the submitted mail to denote compliance. At the postal facility, the physical mail is processed at an acceptance machine for conventional sorting and routing, and concurrently a processing file is prepared of the mail passing therethrough as determined by the bar code scan. The processing file is compared against the notification file, and an exception file generated listing on an item by item basis any discrepancies between the lists. The exception file is available on the main server and designates items at variance with any of the bar codes or subset information. In this manner, missing and duplicate items can be identified, orphan or non-listed items designated, and variances on any of the subset information denoted. Such knowledge allows the mailing agent and originating party to eliminate redundancies, alter postage programs and take other corrective actions to increase compliance. The various files may also be accessed by the involved parties for determining processing date, location of items in the system and other productivity and marketing information helpful in evaluating performance. By converting mass mailings into individual record files, the mailing history and performance by all concerned may be quickly determined for each item.